Genesis 4:3 - Meaning and Application

Here we see the worship of Cain and Abel. “In the course of time,” when they had made some progress in their work, they brought an offering to the Lord. The Hebrew phrase may mean the end of the days, perhaps at the end of the year, when they kept a feast of harvest, or perhaps at the end of the week, on the seventh day, the Sabbath. At some set time, Cain and Abel brought their gifts to Adam, the head and priest of the family, and through him to the Lord.

We have good reason to think God had given Adam this duty as a sign of his favor, even after the fall. In this way, God was testing Adam’s faith in the promise and his obedience to the remedy he had provided for sin. It also kept up a renewed connection between heaven and earth, and it gave early shadows of the good things still to come.

This shows several things. First, the worship of God is not a new idea. It has been there from the beginning (John 1:1). It is the old and good way (Jeremiah 6:16). God’s city is indeed an ancient city, with a long and honored history (Isaiah 23:7). Truth came before error, and godliness before wickedness.

Second, it is a great help when children are taught well while they are young. They should be trained early in religious duties, so that when they grow up and can act for themselves, they may willingly bring an offering to God. Parents must bring up their children in the Lord’s nurture and instruction (Genesis 18:19; Ephesians 6:4).

Third, each of us should honor God with what we have, according to the way he has blessed us. Cain and Abel brought gifts according to their work and possessions. Our goods and earnings, whatever they are, should be holy to the Lord (Isaiah 23:18). God must have his share in acts of worship, charity, support for religion, and help for the poor. We must now bring our offerings with an honest heart, and with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Fourth, hypocrites and evil people can go quite far in outward acts of religion. Cain came with Abel, and Cain is even named first, as if he were more eager. A hypocrite may hear many sermons, say many prayers, and give many gifts, and still fall short with God because he lacks sincerity. The Pharisee and the tax collector both went up to pray (Luke 18:10).

The result of their worship was very different. What matters in every act of religion is God’s approval. We do well if we gain that, but worship is useless if we miss it (2 Corinthians 5:9). To an onlooker, Cain’s sacrifice and Abel’s might have looked the same. Adam may have accepted both, but God, who sees more deeply than people do, did not. He looked with favor on Abel and his offering, perhaps showing it by fire from heaven, but he did not look with favor on Cain and his offering. We can be sure there was a good reason for this difference, because the ruler of the world does not show favor or disfavor without cause.

First, there was a difference in the men themselves. Cain was wicked. He lived a bad life, ruled by the world and the flesh, and so his sacrifice was hateful to the Lord (Proverbs 15:8), a worthless offering (Isaiah 1:13). God had no regard for Cain himself, and so he had no regard for his gift. Abel, by contrast, was righteous. He is called righteous Abel (Matthew 23:35). His heart was right, and his life was godly. He was one of those whom God watches with approval (Psalm 11:7), and whose prayer is his delight (Proverbs 15:8). God looked on him as a holy man, and therefore on his offering as a holy offering. The tree must be good if the fruit is to please the heart-searching God.

Second, there was a difference in the offerings themselves. Hebrews 11:4 says Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. This may mean the nature of the offering, or the quality of it. Cain’s gift was only a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Creator. Such offerings from the fruit of the ground may have been proper in themselves, as far as we know. But Abel brought a sacrifice that pointed to atonement, meaning a covering for sin. Its blood was shed for forgiveness, and in this he owned himself a sinner, asked God to turn away his wrath, and sought his favor through a Mediator, one who stands between God and man.

Or it may mean the quality of the offering. Cain brought some fruit from the ground, perhaps whatever was easiest to gather, what he did not need himself or could not sell. Abel chose carefully. He did not bring the lame, the weak, or the leftovers. He brought the firstborn of his flock, the best he had, and the fat portions, the best of the best. The Jewish teachers therefore said, as a general rule, that whatever is given to the good God should be the finest and best. It is fitting that he who is first and best should receive the first and best of our time, strength, and service.

The greatest difference was this, Abel offered in faith, and Cain did not. They did not act from the same heart. Abel looked to God’s will as his rule, to God’s glory as his goal, and to the promise of a Redeemer for his hope. Cain did what he did only to go along with others or protect his reputation, not in faith, and so it became sin for him. Abel was a repentant believer, like the tax collector who went home justified, declared right with God. Cain was unbroken and proud, trusting himself, like the Pharisee who praised himself and still was not justified before God.

Cain was deeply angry at the difference God made between his sacrifice and Abel’s. His anger showed at once in his face, because his countenance fell. This does not mainly show sorrow, but malice and rage. His sour, stubborn look betrayed his resentment. His face carried his bad spirit, and his expression testified against him.

This anger showed, first, his hostility toward God. He was angry with God for making such a difference between his offering and his brother’s. He should have been angry with himself for his own unbelief and hypocrisy, which had cost him God’s favor. His face should have fallen in repentance and holy shame, like the tax collector who would not even lift up his eyes to heaven (Luke 18:13). Instead, he turned against God, as if God had been unfair and partial, and as if God had wronged him. It is always a sign of an unbroken heart when we complain about rebukes that our own sin has brought on us. A person’s foolishness ruins his way, and then, to make things worse, his heart grows angry against the Lord (Proverbs 19:3).

Second, Cain’s anger showed his envy of his brother, who had been openly accepted.

Though Abel had done nothing to shame Cain, and had not insulted him in any way, Cain still came to hate him as an enemy, or, which is much the same, as a rival. People who have made themselves unfit for God’s favor by bold sin often grow angry at those whom God honors and sets apart. The Pharisees followed this way of Cain when they would not enter God’s kingdom themselves and tried to keep others from entering too (Luke 11:52). Their eye was bad because their Master’s eye, and the eyes of their fellow servants, were good.

Envy is a sin that often reveals itself in the face, and brings its own punishment into the body. It can show in a pale look, and it can work like a disease that eats away at the strength within.